Valkyria Chronicles 2

Valkyria Chronicles 2 Co-Op Review - Page 2

Attacking near allies lets them join in. Co-Op killing is fun!

The biggest improvement the sequel offers is the ability to change/improve the class of your soldiers. Avan can take on any of the game’s core classes, so if you’re not set on him being a Scout, you can certainly change that. In addition, once your soldiers earn enough post-mission credits (kills, movement, support, etc.), they can change to several variations on their base class. Do you want to keep their normal skills, but make them an elite version with better physical attributes, or do you want to branch them down a separate tree, eschewing old abilities for new ones. Players missing the original’s Sniper can rest assured that they’re not gone- you just have to convert a Scout.

So how’s the co-op? You can bring up to three other players into any mission (after the tutorials end) and all play simultaneously. Moving one of your units near a co-op partners’ unit while they’re attacking will let you join in on the attack without taking up the action for your turn. With only two players, you can essentially get four attacks per turn. Imagine this with four players and you can see what kind of strategies may evolve. Additionally, you may give up some of your command points to other players if their squad is in a more advantageous position. The system works fairly well, but it’s possible to play a match without seeing your co-op partner (especially with only two players), and in order to join in on a co-op attack, you have to be positioned very specifically and the timing to join in is short.

As far as I’ve experienced, you can only join in on missions you have access to, so a more experienced player won’t be able to drag someone through a particularly late mission and give a disproportionate amount of experience to their partner. Progress is saved for all players, however, so I’d recommend polishing the tutorial missions off, then grouping up to take on the story. You’re also not restricted to one of each individual soldier, so you can run through a mission with four Avans if you’d like. It’s kind of lame that you have to set up a separate multiplayer session each time you start a mission, but with all of the things you can do at the academy between missions, it makes a little bit of sense.

If you liked the original game, and you also own a PSP, do yourself a favor and pick this game up. If you didn’t play the original, trust me when I say you don’t need to in order to enjoy Valkyria Chronicles 2. It has been a pretty good year for quality PSP titles, and this is no exception. I just hope the recently revealed third game in the series keeps the momentum going.

Verdict

Co-Op Score

3.5/5

Overall

4.5/5

The Co-Op Experience: Players can bring their characters into a friends game to assist during the single player battles.Co-Op can also be played on the multiplayer maps in comp stomp fashion.

Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.